Odyssey 2.6 · Book 2, lines 6–8
He calls the assembly
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αἶψα δὲ κηρύκεσσι λιγυφθόγγοισι κέλευσε κηρύσσειν ἀγορήνδε κάρη κομόωντας Ἀχαιούς. οἱ μὲν ἐκήρυσσον, τοὶ δʼ ἠγείροντο μάλʼ ὦκα.
At once he ordered the clear-voiced heralds to summon to assembly the long-haired Achaeans. These made the proclamation, and the others gathered very quickly.
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The setting
His first act as a grown man: Telemachus sends out the heralds. No assembly has met on Ithaca since Odysseus sailed for Troy (as the poem is about to say), so summoning one is itself a claim to his father's place.
A note on this passage
The mechanics of a summons, in three lines. Telemachus tells the heralds — ‘clear-voiced,’ because their whole function is to carry a cry across the town — to call the Achaeans to the meeting-ground, and the men come fast. The type-scene runs on its rails: order, proclamation, gathering.
The undercurrent is who is giving the order. Calling an assembly is a leader's prerogative, and no one has exercised it on Ithaca in twenty years. A youth nobody has had to obey now issues a command through the town's own officials, and the town obeys ‘very quickly.’ The speed is the tell: Ithaca has been waiting for someone to convene it.
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